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Fitness app links to Zappos for shoe feature

Under Armour’s MapMyRun fitness app has looped in online retailer Zappos.com in a unique marketing move. The exclusive agreement aims to make tracking wear and tear on shoes — and then buying a new pair — easier by using the app’s new Gear Tracker function.

Robin Thurston, co-founder of app maker and developer MapMyFitness, said runners have long requested this type of function to replace written mileage logs for their shoes. MapMyRun users can select their shoe model and customize the distance to replacement. Gear Tracker can also retroactively add mileage to selected shoes by linking them to saved workouts on the app.

MapMyRun says Gear Tracker is the first in-app feature to alert users when their shoes are becoming “tread-bare” and allows for one-stop shopping to reorder the same pair or shop for a different style on Zappos. Through the app, users are instantly connected to a catalog offering 8,500 models of shoes from Under Armour and others with free next-day delivery.

 
MapMyRun can help runners track shoe wear, and direct them to a new pair at Zappos.com.
Aki Iida, Zappos.com head of mobile, said the company had been working on its own app or solution to alert customers when to buy new shoes, and decided integrating with MapMyFitness’ 28 million registered users was a better fit. “We think this is a more inclusive, cost-effective way to reach runners than special [bespoke] services,” Iida said. “These customers are really motivated to buy shoes. … For us to seamlessly provide an interface to add gear through the apps when needed and to repurchase the product, I think it’s almost a no-brainer deal.”

Talks began more than a year ago, but once a deal was struck, development on Gear Tracker took just about three months.

Executives at both companies declined to comment on the feature’s financial terms, but Thurston said MapMyFitness is not receiving referral revenue from Zappos for sales through Gear Tracker. The app gets revenue from premium subscriptions to its MVP program and technology platform licensing, as well as marketing partnerships such as a campaign running now with Walgreens, and Thurston said the partnership will keep users interacting with the app, as well as helping them avoid injuries caused by old shoes.

Zappos is promoting MapMyRun “through all available channels … to reach users at the point of sweat,” in Iida’s words. Iida would not divulge the amount of Zappos’ athletic shoe sales, saying only “it’s an important, sizeable amount of our business.”

Under Armour bought MapMyFitness for $150 million in November. The app’s second-quarter revenue jumped 35 percent from the first-quarter figure, to $5.4 million, per SEC filings.

Matt Powell, an analyst with SportsOneSource, said he is surprised Under Armour shoes aren’t more prominently positioned on the fitness apps. “You don’t come away thinking it’s an Under Armour site,” he said.

Thurston said in-app recommendations may be added down the road. Those could be used to offer users alternative choices — and discounts — on Under Armour models, though analysts say serious runners would not likely switch brands without testing them in-store and consulting an expert.

Gear Tracker also may help Under Armour gain credibility and make additional inroads into the competitive but lucrative $7 billion running shoe business, the biggest segment in the $22 billion athletic shoe marketplace, Powell said.

“Under Armour has had good growth in running so far this year. Sales of its running shoes are up about 35 percent this year so far” over 2013, he said. But he said the company has just 3 percent of the running market, compared with Nike’s 60 percent share.

Thurston said his company’s apps will track other types of gear as well as shoes. Iida said Zappos has interest in adding athletic apparel to the Gear Tracker deal, but an announcement is not imminent.

The e-commerce executive said he was pleased with the pace of interest in Gear Tracker since its Aug. 14 launch, though neither MapMyFitness or Zappos provided numbers for how many sales it has produced thus far. More than 100,000 pieces of gear are being tracked, MapMyFitness says.

“People are setting up their gear and coming over to our site to look at product, but we have to wait and see if people actually buy,” Iida said. “Purchases can be made for all sorts of factors, but we’re trying to track it as best as we can.”

Robert D. Gray is a writer in California.

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